When In Rome
by Blaze of Awesome Glory
Summary: While on a school trip in Rome, teenagers Alice and Lux get separated from their classmates and accidentally stumble into a mafia war, and now they have no choice but to see their mistakes through to the end. When in Rome, do what the Romans (or in this case, the Vongola) do, right? NOT characters/OCs.


**Title: When In Rome  
**

**Summary: When in Rome, teenagers Alice and Lux accidentally stumble into a mafia war, and now they have no choice but to see their mistakes through to the end. When in Rome, do what the Romans do, right? NOT characters/OCs.  
**

**Author: Blaze of Awesome Glory  
**

**A/N: Hi! This story includes some OC's as main and supporting characters, lots of violence, cursing, and mafia references. And Google-translated languages. You've been warned!  
**

**Words:  
**

**Urusai (Japanese) - Shut up.  
**

**Stai zitto (Italian) - Shut up.  
**

* * *

_**Chapter 1: Lost in Rome**_

"Aliiiiiiiice, how could you have done this to us?"

While people bustled through the thin street and tried to avoid being knocked over people riding in small cars or on bikes, there were two teenagers that were obviously the odd ones out. They looked lost, with the way the Asian girl kept twisting the map like she was reading it wrong. She swept her bangs out of her eyes, ignoring the way people that were being pushed together brushed past her and mumbled things in Italian.

"Done what?" the Asian girl asked quizzically, still squinting at the map as she tried to decipher it. She was tall and slim, her hair had that short and layered stereotypical 'Asian-style' to it, and she didn't seem at all phased by the sun beating down on her tanned skin

"_You_ got us lost!" the other odd-girl out declared. She was short (just below five feet) and pale (though her skin was starting to pink with sunburn), with wide green-blue-gray eyes hidden behind glasses, and decidedly distressed.

"I didn't get us lost!" the Asian girl that had been called Alice protested. "I'm trying to find our way back to the group after _you_ decided to almost get kidnapped!"

"I didn't almost get kidnapped!" the girl protested, her already sunburned cheeks darkening more with embarrassment.

"Lux, I've taken Italian for nearly six years," Alice snapped, finally looking up at her shorter companion. "I'm not fluent, but you know what the man basically told you? 'Come to the van, I have candy!' If it weren't for me, he'd be selling your hair on the black market or something right about now!" She pulled at the ends of Lux's shoulder blade-length brown-blonde hair.

"I just asked where the bathroom was!" Lux whined, flailing her arms.

"Still! Stranger danger applies _everywhere_, Lux," Alice sighed. "And since he wasted our time before finding the bathroom, the group moved on without us!"

"I'm sorry," Lux finally decided, too tired to continue arguing. She pulled Alice's arm, and the two found a secluded section of the street to find their way, leaning against the wall. Alice kept up an irritated facade for all of thirty seconds before noticing Lux's guilty expression and decided to take pity on the short younger girl.

"Yeah, well, at least you brought me with you," Alice sighed, looking down at the map again as she nudged Lux's shoulder with her elbow. "Can't have you getting all the fun, can we?"

Lux cracked a smile, knowing that was as close to an apology as she was going to get from the older girl. "Definitely," she agreed. "If I get kidnapped, I'll be sure to bring you along."

"Great." Alice smirked, and then looked up. "Okay, our next stop was that museum, but we should play it safe and make our way back to the hotel. You got your cell on you to call someone?"

"No," Lux murmured after checking. "Conveniently dead," she declared, pointing at the black screen.

"Inconveniently, you mean," Alice corrected.

"Being sarcastic, Al."

Alice shrugged, checking her own phone. She quickly dialed a number, planning on calling the teacher that had been in charge of the trip. "Eh, doesn't matter anyway. The calls won't go through."

Lux sighed. "Does that mean we're walking back to the hotel?"

"Yup, looks like it," Alice declared. "It's only a couple of miles from here. If we walk we can be there in about two or three hours. If we hitchhike, twenty-thirty minutes in this craziness." She gestured at the crowds of people and cars moving through them.

"I just hope Mrs. Allen and Mr. Morelli don't worry too much," Lux murmured.

"I just hope they don't chew us out too badly," Alice sighed instead. "Come on, Lux, let's get walking."

* * *

After walking for nearly an hour, Alice and Lux decided that they were lost again.

"The map is so confusing," Alice grumbled, squinting at it determinedly, as if looking for the right answers. "But the roads are all twisty and so hard to navigate and -"

"Yeah, yeah, got it," Lux interrupted, stopping Alice from launching into another rant.

The two girls lapsed into silence as they walked down the street. The buildings around loomed over them, casting menacing shadows and making the two feel uncomfortable. There weren't any people around, but they could feel eyes from the windows following them.

"I don't think this is a good part of the city," Lux whispered, shifting closer to Alice.

Alice usually wouldn't have allowed Lux into her personal space, but she let it slide, since she wasn't feeling too comfortable in the area, either. "It's like they're hiding from something," she observed.

"Or someone," Lux pointed out.

"Ooh, aren't they smart, sempai?" a monotone-voice that could rival even Alice's most uncaring voice drawled in English.

The two girls whipped around, eyes wide. The voice seemed to echo all around them, with no distinct location.

"Ushishishi, you weren't supposed to say anything, stupid frog," came the response.

Though both were speaking English, as anime fans Alice and Lux could hear traces of a Japanese and Italian accent to both voices.

"Who's there?" Alice snapped off immediately, gritting her teeth as Lux's fingers dug into her arm out of fright. Casting a glance down at the younger girl, she was slightly impressed to see that even though Lux was scared, she was putting on the best brave face that she could. "Ease up," she murmured quietly, keeping her own unease down.

Lux's grip loosened, but only slightly.

"None of your business, peasants," came the second voice.

"The Fake Prince and Fran," the first monotone informed.

_"Urusai!"_

"I'd rather not."

"Answer me!" Alice snapped.

"The Prince doesn't take orders from peasants," the haughty voice replied.

"I'm not a peasant. I'm the Badass," Alice squawked indignantly.

"Yet you associate with peasants!"

"As do you!" Alice retaliated, "And Lux is_ not_ a peasant! She's . . . the Hobbit Queen!"

While Lux normally would have protested the name, she was freaked out to the point where she didn't even seem to acknowledge it. "Um, yeah, and as the queen, I demand that you show yourselves!" she shouted with her brave-face in place, though her voice wavered slightly.

"Ushishishi, no demands, Hobbit."

"Request, then?" Lux asked in a smaller voice.

A pause, then, "Granted~!" the haughty voice hummed.

Large shadows once again fell over Alice and Lux's head, and when they looked up, they saw two people jumping down from the rooftops.

"Eep!" Lux squeaked, pulling Alice out of the way roughly. They landed on their butts a few feet away, and when they looked up, two people were standing directly where they had been moments before.

"Ushishishi, we startled you!" The haughty voice belonged to an shaggy-blonde haired guy in his early twenties, and a tiara was perched precariously in his hair. He wore a Cheshire Cat grin, practically promising pain.

"You don't startle anyone," the monotonous teal-haired boy droned on, looking rather disinterested with everything. "Honestly, sempai, you merely scared the short one with your face."

A knife was suddenly embedded in Fran's frog hat, and Alice and Lux jumped at the sudden attack.

"Ow," Fran droned. "Sempai, that wasn't very nice."

The blonde shrugged noncommittally as he turned to fully face the two girls. "You should leave," he said. "This place is about to become a bit of a war-zone."

"What do you mean?" Alice asked with a frown.

"Mafia war's going on right now," Fran drawled.

"Really?" Lux's eyes were wide. "You're in the mafia?"

"Yup, the Vongola," the blonde replied. "We're part of the Varia, though; we're an independent assassin group."

"I'm taking this way better than I thought I would," Alice murmured, brows furrowed. "Why is this not shocking?"

"They _do_ seem rather . . ._ Cruel_ in a blood thirsty way," Lux remarked helpfully.

If anyone could see the top half of Belphagor's face, they would have noticed him quirk a brow at the strange girls. "Ushishishi . . . Still," he said. "Unless you want to die, scram."

Alice and Lux got to their feet. "That's why everyone's hiding, then," Lux murmured, taking a step back from the two strange men.

"Oi, what are you two idiots doing talking to civilians?!" a scratchy voice then interrupts from a few yards behind Lux and Alice.

"Stupidera," Fran greets stoically as the two teenagers turn to face the newcomers.

"Stupidera?" Lux echoes questioningly. "What kind of name is that?"

"It's not," the silver-haired man snapped, green eyes narrowed in a menacing way. He was tall, slim, and intimidating without even trying to be. "I'm Gokudera, the Tenth's right hand."

"The Tenth?" Lux questioned.

"Lux, repeating statements as questions is stupid. Stop," Alice ordered.

"Bite me," came Lux's sharp retort. Alice grinned mockingly, baring her teeth.

"The Tenth," Gokudera cut in scathingly, interrupting the two teens' bickering. "Is the boss of the Vongola."

"Kind of a whimp," Bel stage-whispered at the teens.

"_Stai zitto,_ bastard!" Gokudera snapped, using one of the only phrases Lux had really bothered to learn to fire out quickly in two years of Italian classes. "You're not even supposed to be talking to these two _kids_. You're supposed to be in position, like everyone else."

"Then why did you leave?" Fran asked, still monotonous."I came to warn you that your own boss is seriously considering frying your asses."

"Ushishishi, he wouldn't do that," Bel said, waving a hand dismissively. "Now go back to your spot, peasant."

"Not done yet," Gokudera snapped, and then his eyes zeroed in on Alice and Lux. "You two."

Lux trembled just slightly, but stopped as Alice sharply nudged her. "What?" Alice spoke scathingly, adopting the same tone as Gokudera to keep on equal grounds.

Gokudera's glare intensified. "The Tenth wants to speak with you." He turned sharply on his heel. "Follow me."

Exchanging glances, Lux and Alice stuck close to each other and followed after the menacing man.

* * *

Lux wasn't sure what she was expecting - large muscly thugs with guns in suits, menacing glares and snarls, or what - but whatever she could have imagined, _this_ was not part of it.

She and Alice had been lead to one of the rickety old buildings, going through and then out the back door into an alley, and then through another building before being lead into a small room with a couple of chairs set up around table, with three people loitering about.

It was obvious immediately who the boss was: the short mousy-brown-haired guy sitting in one of the chairs, brow furrowed as he read over some papers spread on the table before him. His eyes were a doe-brown that looked far too innocent to belong to a mafia boss, but with the way the other two people protectively and respectively stood around him, like they were waiting to give up their own lives for him at a moments notice, betrayed his position.

When they fully entered the room, the Tenth looked up at them, instantly smiling. "Thank you for bringing them, Gokudera-kun," he said gratefully. He turned his gaze to the girls. "Please, take a seat."

Hesitantly, Alice and Lux did as they were told.

"Would you mind introducing yourselves?" the Tenth asked, closing the files that sat in front him in a mess. His eyes were focused solely on them, and he was alert and ready to listen.

"I'm Alice Chong," said Asian girl replied. "I'm sixteen, and I hail from Canada but now live in America with this wacko." She pointed at Lux, who immediately flushed at being mentioned.

The Tenth smiled warmly. "It's nice to meet you, Alice," he said pleasantly, turning his face toward Lux. "And you, Miss?"

Lux squirmed as eyes suddenly locked on her. "Um," she squeaked. "I'm Lux Abril -"

"Is that Latin?" the man standing slightly to the side with the curly sideburns ask, smirking.

"Yeah, Lux is Latin for light," Alice piped up helpfully, though she was rigid and gazing at the guy like she was prepared to eat him should he come anywhere near her or Lux. "And trust me, she gets teased enough for it, so kindly don't mention it."

The man smirked, not at all phased.

"Please ignore Reborn and continue," the Tenth chided gently. Lux swallowed and nodded nervously.

"Ah, like I said, I'm Lux, I'm fifteen, and from America."

The Tenth smiled encouragingly. "Pleasure to meet you, Lux, Alice," he said. "I'm the Tenth Vongola Boss, Sawada Tsunayoshi. Feel free to call me Tsuna."

"Okay," the two agreed in unison.

Tsuna nodded. "Now, can you please explain why you're in the middle of nowhere?"

"It's a long story," Lux replied cautiously.

"Mostly because this stupid Hobbit decided to be almost kidnapped by this creepy weird-ass dude with umbrellas, a pedo-stache, and piercings!" Alice snapped, glaring murderously at the younger girl.

"Doesn't that sound like Levi?" Fran murmured quietly in the background, going ignored by everyone else.

"We've got some time before I need to be outside," Tsuna encouraged.

"Uh, alright," Alice said with a sigh. "We're on a school trip. Lux skipped a grade, so she's a junior, like me, and juniors with the highest grades got to come on this trip for a few days. Lux was a bit of an idiot and almost got kidnapped by some asshole umbrella guy, and we got separated from our class, and we needed to walk back to our hotel, but we ended up here instead. The end!"

Tsuna nodded in understanding. "I'm sorry to hear that," he said sincerely. "But I'm afraid you'll be staying here for a bit. We can't allow you to go back outside in case we get attacked."

"Fake Prince Dude and Fran mentioned that you're in a war?" Lux piped up, making her statement more into a question.

Tsuna snorted at the name for Bel, but nodded, nonetheless. "We are," he agreed. "And it's safer for the both of you if you know nothing."

"Too late," Alice snorted spitefully. "We're kind of in the loop now, and if I die, I'll come back and haunt your asses." Lux looked at her with a look that said _shut the hell up_, knowing that speaking so openly to a _mafia boss_ could possibly get the two of them killed. And if Alice got her killed, Lux would bring them both back just to kill Alice herself.

Off to the side, Reborn only smirked. "I like her," he piped up appreciatively. "Add her to the family, Dame-Tsuna."

"Can't do that," Tsuna immediately replied, and his word was final. "You two must stay here until we can get you out of here safely, but I swear that you will make it out."

Alice and Lux nodded cautiously, heads spinning at the events that were happening so quickly.

"In the mean time, I will show you to a room where you can stay for now."

* * *

The room is small, with two small beds pushed into separate corners, a single night stand between them, a small bathroom off to the side, and a tiny TV against one wall. There are no windows, and the space is already making Lux and Alice feel queasy.

_Almost like the places kidnappers kept their victims before warehouses and shit_, Lux thinks, referring to every action movie she's ever seen. _With less rope and actual kidnappers, of course._

The room certainly makes the two girls feel like captives when Tsuna promises to return later on and leaves, locking the door from the outside.

Not even two minutes pass before Alice is on her feet, pacing back and forth while examining their surroundings for possible ways out.

"Sit down so I can think," Lux snaps, examining the lock on the door as she kneels in front of it with a frown and her eyes narrowed.

"Well, this is how my own thinking works, so shove it," Alice retorts, falling onto one of the beds with a dramatic sigh. "Not that it's actually helping me," she adds under her breath. "We don't exactly have anything to pick locks with, Lux. The room is bare."

"Yes, but you're forgetting that having hair in my face annoys me," Lux's voice drifts from the door where the knob is being jiggled just slightly.

Sitting up with a frown, Alice immediately notices that Lux's short fringe is falling in her eyes and her ponytail is messed up even more than normal and falling out.

"How does that help?" Alice asks, immediately on her feet and striding toward Lux.

Upon seeing Lux shoving a bobby-pin into the lock, Alice stops and actually laughs incredulously at the sight. "Dude, you know that only works in movies."

"You sure?" The lock clicks, and Lux is on her feet, grinning crazily. "The internet and youtube prove you wrong, then."

"I have severely underestimated you, Hobbit."

"Obviously, so has the mafia," Lux remarks with a smkirk.

Alice doesn't think she's smiled so wide all day, even though on the inside she's slightly unnerved by what else Lux might have learned on the internet. "Know how to shoot a gun, too?" she asks nonchalantly instead.

"Shotgun? Yes. Rifle? Sort of. Hand gun? Hell no." Lux snorts. "My grandpa hunts. He's not exactly a cop or anything."

"You're getting rather sassy for someone who was literally shaking earlier," Alice notes with a suspicious frown.

"Dude, you've seen the movies." Lux rolls her eyes. "If they think both of us are a threat, they'd separate us. I don't think the Italian mafia really care about a raging Asian and some pathetic stuttering kid with no clue what to do, eh?"

"So you admit that you're clueless and rather pathetic."

"No, I am merely commenting on my quick thinking and lovely acting skills."

"Lux, you egotistical little shit-"

"Love you too, Al, but let's focus on getting out of here first."

* * *

Like they had originally thought, the hallway is empty when they sneak out of the room. One would think that the mafia dudes would at least have one person guarding the door.

_Then again_, Alice quickly decides,_ they hadn't exactly been counting on Lux knowing how to pick a lock._

The two go the way they remember, toward the room where Tsuna had been earlier. That very room is empty now, and the two teens frown in confusion.

"Has the battle started already?" Lux wondered aloud. Just as the question had been voiced, noises from outside could be heard. Battle cries floated through the air, muffled, but still present.

"Probably," Alice agreed sagely. "Let's see if we can find a weapon and bust out of here."

* * *

**I know, I know. You're all thinking, "Blaze, why the hell have you started another story when you can't even finish one?"**

**I intend to finish this one. I've cleaned up my repertoire and plan on starting semi-fresh, so . . . I hope you all enjoyed! Please send in your feedback; it would be much appreciated!**

**~Blaze**


End file.
